A.J. Emms Picks Up Fourth Feature Victory of 2019 Campaign

MILGROVE, Ontario — A combination of speed and perseverance paid off for A.J. Emms at Flamboro Speedway on Saturday night, as he was able to pick up his fourth feature victory of the 2019 season.

Emms started off the night on a solid note, finishing third in both of his qualifying heat races.

He would draw the pole for the feature, breaking out to the early lead. Although he’d lose the top spot on Lap 7, he’d get it back five laps later when the current race leader got caught up with lap traffic. Despite a series of cautions through the back half of the feature, Emms kept putting together good restarts, ultimately crossing the finish line in first for the win.

It marks his second win of the season at Flamboro Speedway, and fourth overall of the season after winning at Delaware Speedway and the Rick Woolner Memorial at Full Throttle Motor Speedway. Emms now leads the Queenston Chevrolet Buick GMC OSCAAR Modified standings by 50 points.

“It was definitely a very topsy-turvy night,” Emms admitted in victory lane. “We finished third in both our heat races, just trying to stay clean and out of trouble. Throughout the race, we just kind of persevered. Starting on pole is very fortunate to draw number one. There were lots of fast cars out here tonight so I’m not sure exactly what we had. We just kind of really relied on our notes moving forward.

“The 89C of Andrew Kamrath was really fast out there. He definitely had the car to beat tonight; unfortunately, he just got caught up in lap traffic. So from there, we just kind of took off, clicked off laps, and were able to take home the finish.

“Overall, a really great night for us. It was really nice to have the whole family here – or half the family here. Moving forward, we’re very excited to get back to Sunset Speedway in a couple weeks and hopefully continue our positive finishes.”

The next race for the Queenston Chevrolet Buick GMC OSCAAR Modifieds is at Sunset Speedway, with the Iron Man 72. The unique format will feature qualifying heat races, followed by twin 36-lap features split across the two days – Saturday, September 21 and Sunday, September 22.

“I don’t know if we’re going to have a strategy. We’ll have to sit down and plan it with the crew,” he commented. “Sunset Speedway – although close to home and a place that I run a lot of laps on, maybe isn’t my favourite race track. But we’ll learn, and do the best we can, and try to click some strong finishes.

“Really, it’s just doing the preparation back home in the shop and trying to bring a good piece there because if you start off behind the ball, it’s very hard to catch back up with this group of OSCAAR Modified drivers. It’s very important to do our homework, and hopefully we can come out with a strong finish.”

Emms has run well there at Sunset Speedway previously, scoring a couple heat victories with a track-best third-place finish in June. In nine starts at the third-mile oval, he has scored three top-five’s and six top-10’s.